The Impact of the Russian Academic Excellence Initiative on University Access to Research Funding

Does the special status of a university improve state support and lead to cumulative advantages? Few studies have focused on the effects of the competitive funding of research projects. This paper contributes to the field by investigating how Russian state universities compete for additional research funding. By drawing on data from open sources, I focus on the winners of the Russian Academic Excellence Initiative 5-100 and the applicants which did not get selected. A comparison of 21 research-oriented winners with a control group of 22 unsuccessful applicants revealed the equally modest success of both in securing funding beyond the state funding programs. However, there is a positive trend in attracting grant funds by the program winners. This may be due to the cumulative effect of the 5-100 initiative and the new Russian Science Foundation (RSF) which were introduced almost simultaneously. The comparison further shows that elite universities outperform their rivals in a variety of funding programs, but this is more evident in the RSF competitions. The paper further deliberates on the possible effects of RSF grants for universities.